A development project to enable actors, such as schools, public administrations, social services, and health care workers, to identify children in need of support at an earlier stage than previously possible has been implemented in Falun municipality in Sweden. The project has gained the attention of researchers as an example of a local application of trust-based governance. One interesting aspect of trust-based governance is that when implementing such a reform in practice, it is done without the support of law or budget changes. This paper presents an in-depth follow-up analysis of the development project with the purpose of examining whether the effects of the project are retained in the long term. My results show that the local project can still be regarded as an example of trust-based governance and that the absence of changes in law and budget has both positive and negative impacts on the implementation process. These findings are important for further understanding the scope of possibilities and difficulties associated with implementing cultural and value-based policies without regulations or a concrete budget.

Conceptually the aims of this thesis are to show the salient features of the political reproduction of states as a necessity for their survival as they continually face a double-security dilemma in the neoliberal era. Empirically this thesis examines Turkey’s ruling party from 2002 to 2015. The Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) maintained authority by mitigating the polities and actors that posed vertical and horizontal competition to their power (the double-security dilemma of domestic and international threats faced by state rulers). To outcompete and absorb its rivals, the AKP maintained a post-Islamist alliance-building model of political reproduction through a globalized Islamic neoliberal authority pattern until 2011. This became popularized as the ‘Turkish Model’, a model of political reproduction framed as suitable for other Muslim-majority states. The findings from data analysis show that to maintain the constitutive sovereignty of the Turkish state, the AKP built a post-Islamist hegemony. Furthermore, this thesis explores how the AKP horizontally built a pluralist vision of neo-ottomanism enabling their navigation of the international political system. Their ‘zero-problems’ foreign policy was the cornerstone of building regional liberal peace. This policy was the basis of the AKP’s maintenance of functional sovereignty until the ‘Arab Spring’. Yet, the new double-security dilemma that emerged through the ‘Arab Spring’ not only threatened the existence of post-Islamism within Turkey, but the existence of the ‘Turkish Model’ itself. The AKP then moved towards a fortifying pattern of authority to shield both themselves and the Republic from emergent threats / Marie Curie European Commission Sustainable Peacebuilding Project through Sabancı University and the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust.

For the last 60 years, Sweden has been known as a generous donor country. International development cooperation has become a principal objective of Swedish society.  My research aims to examine whether the recent changes in the domestic political scene concerning the uprising of the national right political party, the SD, has affected this international aid paradigm in Sweden. One particular focus of the study has been the aftermath of the 2015 migration crisis.  A qualitative desk study was adopted, and content analysis of official documents was conducted through abductive reasoning to make this study possible   The finding of this study is that solidarity and the moral duty towards those in need have been a very well consolidated motive in the Swedish aid thinking. Accordingly, no noticeable changes are yet to be observed as regards the official aid policy in Sweden. However, the SD´s rhetoric is increasingly echoing in both the press debate and the political scene in Swedish society and is slowly influencing the thinking of both other parties and the society at large.

This thesis attempts to explain the reasons states choose to prey on other states or territories. A way of testing significance was devised and three variables were produced: Proclivity to violence, winning coalition size, and whether or not a war of conquest took place. The scope for this project was the time period of 1900-1950 and the location was Europe. The European countries were then refined down to a list of 10 states based on power ratings used in the Correlates of War. Then the leaders of each of these states were rated on a scale of 1 – 5 on personal violence, or how inclined they were to act violently. In order to determine this number their biographies were researched and specific traits were used to determine if they were violent individuals. These include military service, criminal history, participation in violent sports, support of military action, participation in a war effort, and any other examples of violent behavior. Second, the winning coalition size of each of these leader’s states was determined as an indicator of the amount of domestic support a leader had. This was ascertained by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita’s rating system. The third variable, the occurrence of a war of conquest, was determined by finding if there was a war of conquest that took place during the tenure of the individual leaders. The hypothesis is that a leader with a high proclivity to violence and a small winning coalition size will have presided over more wars of conquest than leaders with a low proclivity to violence and a large winning coalition. The three variables were compiled at the individual leader level totaling 151 cases and 10 countries. Then they were tested using the SPSS statistical program using a binary logistic regression. The results showed no significance between the variables. When tested individually however the independent variable of proclivity towards violence showed a p-value of .054, making it nearly significant at the .05 level. This finding illustrates a potentially significant correlation between the individual violence level of a leader and whether or not they initiate or continue a war of conquest.

This essay is to be filed as a sub-category under the greater question of what sets the odds for international cooperation. It takes a closer look at domestic politics’ influence over the issue area: utilizing a liberal rational actor theoretical approach with an interest focus. The subject of this single case study is climate politics in the United States during the Obama Administration and its meaning for the Copenhagen Accord commitments.It concludes that domestic politics matter for the odds of international cooperation in the case of U.S. climate action and that ratification of the U.S. commitments to Copenhagen rest in the hands of strong interest groups. This conclusion relies on the fact that in the U.S., the decision-making horizon for the ‘collective’ of government branches is short due to overlapping election cycles, a slow legislative process and a weak party structure. What this essay underlines is that ignoring domestic politics and viewing states as unitary actors under conditions of divergent policy preferences between branches of government will produce incomplete and incorrect conclusions about the reasons and odds for international cooperation.

This dissertation argues that the mass media have played a critical but misunderstood role in the variety of national political responses to economic globalization around the world since the 1960s. More specifically, quantitative as well as qualitative methods across three article-length studies demonstrate how mass media have played a variety of anti-democratic roles in the domestic politics of economic globalization since the 1960s, in ways which have gone largely unnoticed by political scientists. The first article, "Mass Media and the Domestic Politics of Economic Globalization," argues that the mass media make welfare spending less responsive to domestic groups harmed by economic globalization. Statistical tests on state-level economic data as well as individual-level survey data are found to be consistent with this theory. The second article, "Media Ownership and the Social Construction of Economic Globalization," argues that the response of mass publics toward the global economic exposure of their country varies according to the degree of foreign ownership in the national media market. Statistical analysis of state-level media ownership data and aggregate public opinion data, combined with qualitative analyses of newspaper con- tent, provides mixed evidence for the theory. The third article, "Why are the Most Trade-Open Countries More Likely to Repress the Media?" argues that different components of economic globalization exert contradictory pressures on state-media relations. Statistical analysis of economic data and media freedom data combined with process-tracing in Argentina and Mexico pro- vide evidence for the theory. / Political Science

This thesis examines through the use of archives and oral evidence the role of the Pakistan Army in the context of Pakistan’s domestic politics and foreign policy. Its main purpose is to explore the autonomy of the Pakistan Army in shaping national and foreign policy between the years 1947-1965. Focusing on its independent relationship with three instruments of policy-making in the United States – the Department of State, the White House and the Pentagon – the thesis argues that the relationship between the Army and these policy-making bodies arose from a synergistic commonality of interests. The Americans needed a country on the periphery of the Soviet Union to contain Communism while the Pakistan Army needed US military support to check Indian regional military hegemonism in South Asia. This alliance was secured to the disadvantage of democratic political institutions of Pakistan. The Army, which became stronger as a result of US military and economic support, came progressively to dominate domestic politics. This led not only to weakened civilian governments in the period I am examining, but in 1958 to the military seizure of political control of the country itself. The infringement of the Army into civilian spheres of government further caused a deterioration in relations between East and West Pakistan. The increasing clout of a US-backed Army whose elite officers had a bias against the eastern wing of the country, the thesis argues, thus indirectly resulted in the dismemberment of Pakistan itself. To explain the Army’s ascendancy its transformation from British colonial army into a national political actor, is documented. The thesis explores the influence of the martial-race theory and of Punjabisation in the Army as it developed in the colonial era. Secondly, it reconstructs how provincial politics weakened the Federal Government and allowed the Army to usurp political power to a disproportionate degree. Thirdly, the thesis considers the extent to which the US-Army relationship influenced and even took precedence over decision-making within the government itself. It details the military pacts made between the two countries to contain the USSR in this period. Finally, it explores where and how the interests of the US and Pakistan Army diverged, in particular concerning their respective relations with India. The complications arising in Indo-Pakistan relations in consequence of an abrupt tilt of the US towards India after the Sino-Indian war in 1962 are also examined. In reaction to this new Indo-US nexus, it is argued the Pakistani military junta leaned towards China and in 1965 endeavoured to make use of it advanced, US-supplied weaponry before – as they saw it – the strategic balance was to be irrecoverably lost in favour of India. In conclusion, the thesis argues that the period under consideration saw a complete failure of the US policy of containing communism whilst at the same time avoiding war between its allies in the region, and that this had tragic consequences for the future of democracy in Pakistan.

<p>A number of puzzles exist regarding the role of domestic politics in the likelihood of international conflict. In particular, the sources of incomplete information remain under-theorized and the microfoundations deficient. This study will examine the role that the unity of the government and the views of the government towards the use of force play in the targeting of states. The theory presented argues that divided dovish governments are particularly likely to suffer from military challenges. In particular, divided governments have difficulty signaling their intentions, taking decisive action, and may appear weak. The theory will be tested on a new dataset created by the author that examines the theory in the context of international territorial disputes. A number of significant findings emerge from the data. First, divided governments are significantly more likely to face challenges and increasing government unity markedly decreases the likelihood of a challenge. Second, unified hawkish governments were far less likely to be the targets of challenges than divided dovish governments. Finally, the substantive impact of key variables was much greater than that of the control variables. The causal process postulated in the theory is examined in eight case studies, two for each of the four government types. These case studies show that government type not only impacts the signaling of democratic states but also influences the perceptions of potential challengers.</p> / Dissertation

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In the 2003 Treaty of Accession, the signatories agreed that all New Member States (NMS) that joined the European Union (EU) in 2004, would adopt the euro, even if no timetable was provided. Why have some NMS not been able to join the euro area even if they made serious attempts at the outset? What are the circumstances and policies in these countries that have led them not yet to adopt the euro? Has it been lack of political will on the part of the government, a strong voice in the opposition, a euroskeptic president, insufficient administrative capacity, or lack of policy learning? Though there is no consensus among economists as to whether or not adopting the euro in the short run is a good idea, an economic cost-benefit analysis would suggest that in the long run euro adoption is positive for NMS. Yet, macroeconomic analyses cannot explain the change in government policies that may lead to euro adoption. Political scientists have typically focused on collective identity, policy learning, ideas and knowledge transfer among central bankers and other political elites, as well as adjustment to global pressures and Europeanization. This political science literature is unable to provide a satisfactory explanation as to why the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have not adopted the euro yet. I argue that the role of domestic politics is key to explaining the process of euro adoption in Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland: government policies, elections, electoral cycles as well as constitutional rules, veto points, central banks, public opinion and the media turn out to be crucial in explaining the lagging euro adoption process in these countries. / Graduate